Brett stood next to the camera while Eddy played Nel cor più no mi sento, soundlessly cheering him on when he successfully played a hard part, and encouraging him when he was struggling. This had been by far the most challenging piece Eddy ever had to play and for the past two months Brett had witnessed all the stress, frustration and sleepless nights it had cost best friend to reach this point. To say that he was proud was the understatement of the century.
With a triumphant look Eddy played the final notes and collapsed against the wall with a sigh of relief. It was over.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"Bro, you did it!" Brett yelled before running up and giving Eddy a huge bear hug. He was so excited he could have jumped around with Eddy in his arms, but Eddy seemed strangely subdued. He tried to step away from their embrace only to realize that Eddy wasn't having it. "Um," he said while Eddy clung to him tightly. "Are you ok?" Not that he minded hugging longer but this was unusual. Eddy didn't answer but Brett could feel a tremor going through his friend's body. And then another. And another. Oh no, even though Eddy didn't make a single sound Brett knew he was crying.
Considering how stressed out of his mind Eddy had been for the past two months Brett had a pretty good idea what was going on in his head. His fears were confirmed when Eddy whispered, "I should have started practicing sooner." while his tears silently soaked the fabric of Brett's shirt. Brett could feel his heart break into a million pieces hearing those words.
"You can't think that way," he said. "It's not like we were just hanging out on the beach every day drinking bubble tea. We went on a world tour, went from a hundred thousand subscribers to almost 2 million. The last 2 years were insane. Besides, we only promised we would try. If you had just sight read the piece an hour in advance nobody would have had a right to say anything, but you didn't. You took it seriously. Practiced nearly 40 hours a day once you got started and the result is awesome. You did good."
"You don't think people will hate it?" Eddy asked, still crying and Brett just wanted to kiss him and make everything better. Somehow he managed to restrain himself.
"They wont. Everyone will love it as much as I do," he said and vowed to himself that he would personally block or delete every post that talked shit about Eddy's performance.
It took a while before Eddy calmed down enough to finally let go of Brett. He looked utterly defeated. "Bro, it's been days since you've had a decent night's sleep." Brett wiped a tear from Eddy's cheek. "Why don't you go and take a nap," he suggested. "I'll take care of the video." Eddy nodded, too exhausted to argue and shuffled to the bedroom.
Brett got to work. He transferred the raw footage from the camera to his laptop and quickly finished the first rough edits. When he was done he sent the video to their editor. Now all he had to do was wait for the finished product. He decided to be productive and practice his Tchaikovsky, quietly of course, so he wouldn't wake Eddy.
A few hours later he got the edited video back from the editor. Eddy was still asleep so he watched it by himself to do a final check before uploading. Everything looked in order, and yet there was something that bothered him. Eddy was by himself and it felt lonely to see him like that. It looked incomplete.
Even though Brett had been in love with Eddy for about as long as they knew each other he never confessed his feelings to anyone. At first because he needed time to accept the fact that he wasn't straight. Then he didn't want to risk their friendship and business. The video was like a sneak peak into the worst timeline where he'd told Eddy about his feelings and TwoSet Violin hadn't survived. He missed himself next to Eddy.
Regardless of his unhelpful feelings the video looked great so he uploaded it. Anxiously he watched the reactions come in, slowly at first, almost too fast to keep up later. His trigger finger was ready to kick, block and ban anyone who thought they could act like assholes but in the end he didn't need it. The general response to the video was as proud and enthusiastic as he'd hoped it would be.
He heard Eddy moving around in the bedroom, and a few minutes later his co-conspirator walked into the living room looking more refreshed than he had in weeks. Brett couldn't help but smile, it was so good to see Eddy back to his old self again. "You look relaxed," he said. Eddy sat down next to him on the couch, so close they touched.
"I feel relaxed. That nap was a good idea, thank you." He turned to face Brett, "In fact, I want to thank you for everything you did for me in the last two months. This piece almost killed me but you were there for me the entire time, helping me figure shit out even though you're busy with the Tchaik, letting me rant when I needed it and coming up with fun video ideas to de-stress."
Brett was quiet, trying to sort out all the emotions he was feeling. He felt happy, embarrassed and appreciated at the same time but he also felt despair. How was he ever supposed to stop loving Eddy if he kept saying such sweet things. He broke eye contact, afraid that his face would betray him. "Anytime bro. You're literally doing the same for me with the Tchaikovsky coming up."
"I'm trying to tell you that I love you, man." Surprised, Brett looked at Eddy "I love you too," he responded. The bliss and agony of speaking the words but not being able to convey their full truth took his breath away.
And then Eddy kissed him.
It was a good kiss, gentle but firm, sweet yet seductive, and by the time Eddy ended the kiss Brett's lips had been thoroughly explored.
Brett looked at Eddy, in a daze of confusion. "Wait, you mean you love love me?" he asked.
"I do," Eddy said. "And I figured if I can record myself playing Paganini's torture porn piece and put it on the internet I can tell the man I love how I really feel about him."
This time it was Eddy's turn to break eye contact, "My feelings are my responsibility though. I don't want you to feel pressured or anything. I get that you don't feel the same way and that's fine. I'm not going to let this affect our friendship or our work." He looked like he had a sudden unpleasant realization, "Shit, then I probably shouldn't have kissed you. I'm sor-"
Brett kissed him.
His hands were on Eddy's jaw while his lips tried to convey over 13 years of unrequited love.
"So does that mean that you love love me too?" Eddy asked with a goofy smile on his face after the kiss ended.
"It does," Brett said, the smile on his face just as goofy.
For a while they just stared, happily lost in each other's eyes. Then Brett remembered the video that was the cause of their new situation. "I uploaded the video while you slept. Do you want to check out the comments?" Eddy looked worried again. "Are you sure that's a good idea?" he asked.
"Very sure, because everybody loved it." Brett grabbed his laptop and refreshed the page. More than fifty new comments had been added since the last time he'd checked.
"What? No, let me see." Eddy cuddled up to Brett to look at the comments and saw only positive reactions. People respected that he kept his promise, that he attempted this insane piece in the first place, that he managed to memorize it in 2 months, his musicality and how much progress he'd made in such a short time. The last traces of anxiety finally melted away.
"See, I told you. You're amazing." Brett said before gently kissing him. For a second Eddy melted into him but then he sat up straight. "Wait a minute," He asked Brett. "Do you mean I'm amazing or Aaahmaaayzing?"
